Rafael Nadal causes huge scare as tennis legend ‘may not recover’ from injury

Rafael Nadal sparked fears as he made a worrying admission about his return from injury. The Spaniard hasn’t played a match since January and underwent arthroscopic hip surgery in June. Nadal is currently planning a comeback in 2024 but said he had to be “realistic” and accept there was a “possibility [he] may not recover”.

The 22-time Grand Slam champion has been mostly quiet since revealing that he was having surgery on the eve of his 37th birthday earlier this year with little known about his rehab and recovery. But Nadal has given multiple interviews recently, offering an insight for the first time since going under the knife.

However, there is now some concern as the former world No 1 confessed that he had to accept that there could be an extreme scenario in which he never recovered and couldn’t return to competition. “There is also the possibility that I may not recover and not play again,” Nadal told AS.

“I hope that is not the case, but one has to be realistic, know the difficulty in which I find myself today and live it naturally.” If there is a drastic scenario that meant Nadal’s career had to end before he could make one last comeback, the Spaniard seems to be at peace with the idea.

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He continued: “Always from the thought that it has been many years of career and that many good things have happened to me. Now it’s time to do this and also without any more frustration than necessary.”

It comes months after Nadal called a press conference at his Mallorcan academy and admitted that 2024 would likely be his final year on the tour – something of a retirement lap of honour. The announcement came before his surgery, and the 92-time title winner has since provided some updates on his attempts at getting ready for a comeback.

“I train for 40 minutes three times a week, and I do quite a bit of work in the gym,” he recently told Movistar, though Nadal also added that the sessions were currently “boring” because he couldn’t move with the intensity that he used to.

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Nadal also hasn’t entirely committed to 2024 being the end, as he confessed that he would keep going if he did manage to return to competition and play at a high level without pain. For now, the 37-year-old is hoping to know more about his progress in mid-November when he can start to make some schedule plans for next season.

But the 22-time Grand Slam champion is staying realistic – even if that means he finds himself in a worst-case scenario where he can’t return at all.

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